The hypocrisy of right-wing free speech politics
This past February, U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance spoke at the annual Munich Security Conference – the leading platform for facilitating discourse on international security matters such as military conflicts and terrorism. V.P. Vance went off the books and addressed the security of democracy on an internal level. Vance berated Europe for allegedly violating the sanctity of free speech, an essential element of democracy. During his speech, Vance criticized a Swedish judge who said the laws protecting freedom of speech do not “grant a free pass to do or say anything without risking offending the group that holds that belief.” In addition, Vance said, “under Donald Trump’s leadership, we may disagree with your views, but we will fight to defend your right to offer it in the public square, agree or disagree.”
The integrity of this stance has been severely undermined by recent events, such as late-night host Jimmy Kimmel’s brief suspension from ABC airwaves. September 24, Vance addressed the nature of Kimmel’s suspension, stating the Trump administration played no part in Kimmel’s removal or other late-night removals, such as CBS’s Stephen Colbert earlier this year, nor has the government ever pressured the population against exercising their right to free speech. However, Colbert’s cancellation and its lead-up blatantly contradict these claims.
Colbert got the axe by Paramount this past July. His removal followed mere days after his criticism of Paramount (the parent company of CBS) and their settlement with President Trump regarding his incredibly unwarranted and out of proportion tantrum over how CBS’s 60 Minutes handled edits of their interview with political opponent Kamala Harris last October. Harris replied to a question regarding Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the U.S. administration’s suggestions for action: “the work that we have done has resulted in a number of movements in that region by Israel that were very much prompted by or a result of many things, including our advocacy for what needs to happen in the region. We’re not going to stop pursuing what is necessary for the United States to be clear about where we stand on the need for this war to end.” Trump took issue with the fact that 60 Minutes offered the first sentence to outlet Face the Nation and only used the second sentence in their own edit, which apparently caused Trump “mental anguish” because he fantasized her “ REAL ANSWER WAS CRAZY, OR DUMB, so they actually REPLACED it with another answer in order to save her or, at least, to make her look better.” Trump sued for $20 billion, and despite the clear lack of merit and evidence behind the claim, Paramount directly undermined the adamant defense CBS had launched and reached a settlement this summer seeing to which they would pay Trump $16 million. The settlement shocked numerous legal experts who saw little chance of success for the suit.
Colbert produced a scathing critique of the settlement in which he accused Paramount of accepting it as a bribe, which would see the Trump administration approve the desired merger between Paramount and Skydance. Two days later, Paramount and CBS announced their “purely financial decision” to cancel “The Late Show with Steven Colbert,” and Trump rejoiced on his social media platform Truth Social, posting: “I absolutely love that Colbert got fired. His talent was even less than his ratings. I hear Jimmy Kimmel is next. Has even less talent than Colbert! Greg Gutfeld is better than all of them combined, including the Moron on NBC who ruined the once great Tonight Show.”
For context, Colbert has consistently topped the charts for late-night television shares and ratings in his time slot, despite sharing the same frame with other prominent performers such as Kimmel and NBC’s Jimmy Fallon. All three are persistent critics of Trump. Greg Gutfeld is with the famously republican Fox News. His show currently boasts the most viewers in late-night television, but it airs during an earlier time slot without such prominent players to divide viewership. Despite Gutfeld’s higher viewership, Colbert still dominates in shares, which take into account the percentage of households currently watching television, while Gutfeld levels lower with Kimmel. In addition, Colbert, Kimmel, and Fallon all have higher shares than Gutfeld in the 18 to 45 demographic.
The Trump administration may not have played an explicit part in Colbert’s cancellation – they may not have publicly pointed a finger at Colbert and said get rid of him or else – but Trump’s constant tirades against liberal late-night hosts constitutes pressure. His tirade against CBS’s edits of Harris constitutes pressure, and, more importantly, it reveals the lengths he is willing to pursue completely fabricated delusions he has crafted in his head with no clear evidence to back up said delusions, only the fact the discourse in question comes from a liberal. This is pressure. This is government involvement. This is a violation of free speech. The inherent pressure that something you say which may not even regard Donald Trump will cause him “mental anguish” and lead to a lawsuit is pressure to remain silent and directly undermines Vance’s comments in Munich.